Drizzle Aegislash is my usual lead, this team revolves around getting the rain up and keeping it up at all times. Not only does it increase the offensive presence of its teammates, but It also negates the fire weakness of the defensive Pokemon on this team.

I decided to give it damp rock for the reasons I mentioned before. It itself does not contribute much to the team in the form of support in its moves but that is not needed because the rain is what matters most for the members.

I decided to give it some useful moves, Nuzzle lets you paralyze other leads and makes this pokemon taunt proof. It also forces Mold breaker leads to use is spore on you because otherwise they will get paralyzed and ruined by it. Teleport is arguably the best pivot move in the game. In most games, this is how I start off. -6 priority lets you go last in most cases, and if you do not go last you know that your opponent is also using a low priority move. Slack off is for longevity. You want to keep up the rain as much as possible so you want Aegislash to be healthy throughout the game. Heal Bell is the only real team support move I decided to give to Aegislash. This is mostly in the case that one or more of your pokemon gets statused, A burn or para can ruin the strikers on this team. I decided to run a -speed nature so I can underspeed other weather setters which can in term win me the weather war.

Melmetal @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wish
- Roost
- U-turn
- Spectral Thief
Melmetal is the physically defensive pivot on this team. It can switch into almost any physical move in the rain. Out of the rain, it is susceptible to strong physical fire type moves like V-Create but in the rain that weakness is negated.

I decided to run it with Fur Coat to take physical hits better, while helmet punishes contact moves and makes physical attackers think twice before attacking again.

For moves I decided to run Wish, Roost, U-turn and Spectral Thief. Wish is there to heal up teammates. With its 135 base hp, it can heal way over 50% on any team member other than itself. Roost is there to heal itself more reliably. Sometimes you need to heal yourself as soon as possible so having an instant healing move is really useful. U-turn is for pivoting, it is very important to get the strikers of this team in safely so they can do as much damage as possible. U-turn also does a little bit of chip damage which can be useful for breaking sashes and scouting for items like Leftovers or Rocky Helmet. Last but not least is Spectral Thief. This beats physical setup sweepers by stealing their boosts. This also makes sure that Taunt + setup is not a problem.

Zamazenta is the specially defensive pivot on the team. It has almost the same role as melmetal but for the special attackers in the tier. In the rain, it can switch into any special move with ease. Out of the rain, it is more susceptible to special fire moves like Blue Flare, but it can still take one in most cases.

I decided to run it with Ice Scales which halves damage taken from special moves. Leftovers gives you a bit more recovery to get out of range of very strong moves and lets you live longer in general.

Recover is a must-have on this pokemon. you need to be able to switch into strong special hits repeatedly so healing off the damage is a must. Teleport as I mentioned earlier is the best pivot move in the game in my opinion. I decided on it over other pivot moves because Zamazenta is very fast so even with a -speed nature it is going to outspeed a lot of pokemon, -6 priority fixes this issue. Spectral Thief serves the same purpose as on Melmetal, taking boosts from setup sweepers. Defog is there for hazard control. This team gets worn down by hazards incredibly quickly due to having to do many switches to get the right positioning. Wish on melmetal helps a bit with that but removing the hazards completely is very valuable.

Now for the fun part of the team: The Wallbreakers. Keldeo is the special breaker of the team. It can beat many of the tier's special walls by sheer power alone. When people have to switch something into Keldeo they usually lose a pokemon.

Swift Swim makes you one of the fastest pokemon in the tier, outspeeding common scarfers like Kyurem-white and Darmanitan-Zen-Galar. And Choice specs gives you the power to run them and special walls over with highly powerful moves.

Water spout is the move you will be clicking most, a 150 bp rain powered move on this pokemon is bound to run something over, For example doing over 75% to prankster Snorlax with max special bulk. Hydro Pump is there for if you get worn down but still want a strong water attack. Thunder is a really good option in the rain, not only giving a strong electric move to hit water types hard but also giving a good chance to paralyze special walls that you can’t beat. Dynamax cannon is to hit dragons for good damage and to punish dynamaxing in front of it since it does double the damage to it.

Kyurem is the first physical breaker on the team. Boasting an impressive 170 base attack is really good for dealing a lot of damage to the opposing team. It can break some physical walls but it is mostly for cleaning up what the last member on this team can’t beat. However, this pokemon still does ridiculous amounts of damage to unsuspecting teams and it has way better speed and coverage than the other physical breaker on this team

Swift Swim once again makes this pokemon very fast. 578 speed in the rain is enough to outspeed everything that is not scarfed or boosted, and it still outruns any scarfer with 110 base speed or less. Choice Band makes you hit a lot harder.

Dragon Darts is a strong dragon type move that can hit through substitute and sash. Dragon types counter Fishious Rend pretty well, for example, Fur Coat Eternatus or Zekrom. However, they get 2hko’d by this move (or 4hko’d depending on how you look at it). Fishious Rend is a really strong water type move as long as you move first, which happens a lot in the rain because of Swift Swim. Rain also boosts the power so it acts like a STAB move. Bolt Beak is the other move boosting in power if you move first. It works well for breaking bulky water types who can handle both Kyurems STAB moves and Fishious Rend. In practice, this is the move I click the least, however. Ice shard gives me a priority move that can beat setup mons and normalize Dragapult. It does around 70% to it however so you will need to hit it twice except for if they are running Shell Smash.

Barraskewda is insanely strong. It has a great speed tier with 136 base speed and its attack is also quite good with 123. The power comes from its water typing combined with the before mentioned Fishious Rend. When this pokemon comes in against a pokemon that can not stomach one hit from it something on the opponent's team is probably going to drop.

I chose for a combination of Intrepid Sword and Choice Band on this pokemon, effectively giving it 775 attack. Its speed is already good enough with 408 to outrun almost everything in the tier.

Fishious Rend is the move you will click 95% of the time. This move has effectively 255 base power in the rain. coming off a 775 attack with STAB this move is pretty much unguardable. Examples of its power are FC Melmetal being 2hko’d by it, As well as being an OHKO on most resists. Close combat is for pokemon with desolate land like Darmanitan-Zen-Galar for example. It is also a really nice move to have for Dynamaxing since it will give an attack raise. I had trouble finding more useful moves so I gave it Brave Bird. This will give a speed boost When Dynamaxed, making this pokemon that much more threatening. As the last move, I have Aqua
Jet, priority is very important on this team because certain setup sweepers with Sash can give this team a lot of trouble.

Desolate Land is an incredibly scary ability because my rain goes down, water moves get evaporated and my walls are weak to fire moves. This is the nr.1 threat to the team. Good Abusers are Darmanitan-Zen-Galar and Reshiram. Darmanitan-Zen-Galar and Reshiram are big threats even without Desolate land. Dynamax can make these pokemon beat my walls by setting up the sun.

Water Absorb is also a great counter to this team. It is not as good as desolate land but it can shut my breakers down quite well.

Dazzling setup sweepers can be really threatening too because it is very hard to revenge kill them. keeping your walls healthy and stealing their boosts is key here

Imposter can be a big problem when you let them imposter your Barraskewda. In rain, Melmetal does not Improof and if they have scarf Kyurem-Black does not outspeed. You can use your Barraskewda in the final 2 turns of rain freely though as long as your Melmetal is healthy.

DarkRay shoutouts to you for seeing the potential in my weather teams in early gen 8. You helped me a lot with perfecting this archetype. It was a lot of fun to play sand with you and destroy the ladder. Hope you come back soon

Smove_$wag wag shoutouts to you for being my biggest hater. I always love destroying you on ladder <3

a loser shoutouts to you for being a great person and playing showdown to boot

I can attest to the fact that this team is amazing. I was lucky enough to use this team for a couple of weeks. It really functions well and each part of the team is valuable. I found myself using Keldeo most of the time to pick up OHKOs that the opponent absolutely did not expect. The defensive core of Melmetal and Zamazenta is near unbreakable. You should really give this team a try if you have the chance. Watch out for some forms of set up spam, taunt/hazard spam can break down your walls quickly, and Desolate Land sometimes as well.

From using this team to ladder a-lot I've found it's pretty ridiculous. I did face against the core of ice scales eternatus/zamazeta and fur coat melmetal which can be tough. I'd recommend maybe trying to fit in hazards somewhere (I tried doing spikes on Kyreum instead of bolt beak) due to the amount of switches this team forces it could help alot against the tougher cores.

Thanks for the imput Nevermor3.I think this is a good addition indeed. I won't change the team but this is certainly something something everyone can try out if you are having trouble with tough defensive cores.